Future of Bumi in balance as key shareholder seeks to sell stake

The future of Bumi, the £900m Indonesian miner in the middle of the largest
corporate row seen in the City of London in more than a decade, hangs in the
balance this weekend after it emerged a key 13pc shareholder has found
buyers for his stake.

The Sunday Telegraph understands that Rosan Roselani has identified two buyers who between them will buy his stake, valued at £117m as of Friday night, in the troubled coal miner.

The identities of the pair — a major US hedge fund and a Hong Kong fund backed by an individual — have been handed to the Takeover Panel which must confirm neither is linked to either side tussling for control.

Nat Rothschild, scion of the banking family, is vying with Indonesia’s wealthy Bakrie family. If that confirmation process can be completed before 11am on Tuesday, it means both new investors will be able to vote their shares by way of proxy at Thursday’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to decide the company’s fate.

Mr Rothschild called the EGM to dislodge 12 of 14 directors and replace them with a new broom.

Such a move could tilt the balance of power in either investor group’s direction. The Bakries, deemed by the Panel to be in concert with a number of other investors, have been restricted to voting 29.9pc of their shares. In an 11th-hour warning, they said even if Mr Rothschild wins, the family will seize control in the long run. “If he takes control of Bumi by appointing himself and his nominees to the board the Bakries will commence litigation, immediately call a new EGM to appoint new directors, and report the situation to the OJK [financial] regulator in Jakarta.”

Mr Rothschild, and Tom Daniel’s St James’s Master Fund, are understood to now control 25.2pc of the 141m voting shares in issue. Schroders, which owns 4.2pc of Bumi, is also supporting Mr Rothschild’s attempts to dislodge most of the board.

In addition to the ruling on Mr Roselani’s would-be buyers, the Panel was this weekend deluged with appeals and counter-appeals from advisers on all sides of the row. Perhaps the most important ruling being awaited, which could come as soon as tomorrow , is exactly how many of the shares the company has in issue can actually be voted.

Appeals have also been lodged in relation to whether Schroders is acting in concert with Mr Rothschild and whether two small US hedge funds are working with the Bakries. The Panel is also working on an investigation as to which Bumi advisers knew about the Bakries’ concert party and when.

The Panel was said by sources to be “under siege” from banking and legal advisers fighting for clients. The Bakries, advised by solicitors Berwin Leighton Paisner, are understood to be prepared to call for a judicial review into the Panel’s activities on Bumi, should the appeals not go in their favour.

Spokesmen for Bumi, Mr Rothschild and the Takeover Panel did not comment.